I've already lost count of how many people I pulled from risky zones in danger of rubble falling. I know that the quest told me to save at least thirty people. I get that.

But it only said at least. As a perpetual underachiever who believed in the phrase 'C's get degrees,' I had neither an obligation nor the motivation to shoot past that.

To be perfectly honest, I was very tired from today. With all this exhaustion piling up on me, I still feel the urge to at least do something with the power I was gifted.

I wipe the sweat from my head with a complaint already forming on my tongue.

"God I feel like shit with this headache." Nothing more than a pain in the ass. I didn't have the right to bitch and moan when there are other people stewing in misery.

This pulsating feeling is still a pain in the ass though. I took another step towards a pile of rubble before another sensation of stabbing pain made me wobble. My hand came rushing towards my temple, pushing into it to numb the pain with a different pain.

This headache was bad. "Did I get a concussion?" Shouldn't this ability of mine heal that from just the natural regen it gives?

I forcefully steady my body before I fully topple over. My vision swam even after I rapidly blinked my eyes to regain some clarity.

"I think I'm fine for now." I made that statement without a hint of medical experience backing me up and continued my trek to a pile of rubble.

All of a sudden I turned my whole body fast enough that something might have torn on the inside.

"What?" It was completely unprompted. I didn't detect any bloodthirst or anything else at all, but my body still turned around. It was because of that unnatural reaction that I was able to catch a figure in the corner of my eye before it vanished.

A pale shadow.

I would've chalked it up to an illusion had it not looked so real. With all the magic bullshit that's been happening today, I refuse to believe my concussion is making me delusional.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to see the nonsense above their head.

"What a waste of time," I tell myself. I have to focus on the most important stuff, which is getting the living out of the way of the clutches of death.

Reaching some concrete stacked haphazardly upon each other, I began carefully removing them from the pile in case there was someone stuck below.

"I'm glad." My cautiousness proved to be correct as there was someone trapped below. Injured, but not dead yet. I momentarily stared at the boy, like I was doing cloud watching.

I pick up the child while zoning out and lay them next to the open building.

Quest Complete.

That alert immediately snapped me out of my fugue. I sighed. Not from a lack of reward by any means, but because of the fact that the alert was incorrect.

How could the quest be complete when there had to be a lot more people in shoddy states that needed to be taken out of dangerous areas?

The quest isn't even close to being done yet.

"Excuse me."

My eyes widened.

I turned around to the unexpected voice and found a person walking towards me. Looking closer, their arm is injured with blood pouring from an ugly gash on their forearm. There seems to be a head injury too, but he's coherent enough to walk over to me and speak.

I must've been more out of it than I thought to not notice him. I felt an easy smile grow on my face from seeing a conscious person. The relief was akin to dipping in a hot spring.

Walking closer to him, I narrowed my eyes at the words above his head and felt my smile grow even more. I felt a burning feeling in my chest, but I ignored that. I just felt utterly overwhelmed by the positive emotions in my heart. In an area steeped in despair, what could offer hope, but finding the one who set this mess into motion?

Finally...

One Who Creates Monsters

LV39

George Nelson

...I found him.

There's death around me. The cause behind it is him. I can feel my nails biting into my palm as I clench my hand into the shape of a fist.

This hot feeling in my chest is rage. I recognize it all too well, remembering getting back at my little brother for pranking and teasing me when we were kids. This however, is magnified to an obscene degree, which can almost be called pleasant even if I'm close to hitting a point of frenzy.

"I can't believe I found someone else who survived this mess. You should get out of here." I tilted my head in confusion. As if I finally saw him as a person for the very first time, I took in his strangely normal appearance that didn't befit a crazed murderer.

"Yeah?" I bemusedly asked.

Something's wrong. I need to cut to the chase right now. "George Nelson." The moment I spoke his name, his pupils shrunk and the air around us became palpably charged.

"You're with them? Or do you just know me...like a coincidence like that could exist." I ignored his words tinged with curiosity and began listing out his fucked up actions.

"You're the piece of shit magician who fucked this place up. As a result, you are directly responsible for the loss of life and the loss of mental stability to many survivors. I think a half-death sentence plus life imprisonment is a worthy punishment."

His eyes narrowed the further I went on, but there was no urgency in his countenance to interject.

"Tell me right now: what did you do this for?" By the time I finished, my smile warped to a neutral frown. Uncontrollably, my eye was twitching and it was difficult to hold myself back from beating him senseless.

Odd. I shouldn't feel this calm. I really want to turn his face into a bruised grape, but my burning interior is wrapped in an artificial coolness. This clarity allowed me to realize that something was very off. I began biting the tip of my finger.

"If you know that much…" he began, taking a deep breath. "You must've met some people who were chasing me. Listen, I'll tell you this right now. I am not the one who ruined this city."

...What?

I wasn't as surprised as I should've been, but my body still reacted to an inconceivable truth. A light fog slowly slipped out of his mouth as he took rapid inhales and exhales.

I took a step back and gritted my teeth in frustration, tearing the skin from my thumb and inadvertently causing it to bleed If he didn't do it… "If it wasn't you, then who the hell was it?!" I yell back, finally letting loose the frustration that was building up.

I thought I could resolve the grudges of the dead and my own anger by beating the hell out of the number one cause behind it. I had the perfect target. It was supposed to be an insane magician who caused an explosion.

I have no power to heal anyone. All I can do to save people is just lift up rubble and move them out of the harm's way. That's not good enough. So, there had to be another way I could make myself feel better. Beating up the person behind the mess to gain some satisfaction was supposed to be the plan.

The stifling and impotent feeling I had was supposed to go away after I beat the shit out of the person behind this. It was supposed to!

I felt my hands contract into a fist before loosening. That pattern repeated multiple times with a storm raging inside my head.

I had a nice fantasy that turned out to be nothing more than a pipe dream. It almost made me want to laugh at my naivety. Instead, I rejected this outcome.

"No," I denied. "Even if it wasn't you specifically, you could've used someone or something to create this situation. Who else has the mindset and the power to cause this much destruction?"

I remember something Vincent told me. He had a monster under his control. He could've used that. It felt like solid reasoning on my part.

And as if to deny my resolve, the man who's just as injured as the survivors I rescued, shook his head.

"I swear on my mother's grave." The severity of that oath hit me hard. He was most likely telling the truth, but believing it is… I shook my head. It's something I just can't accept.

Accepting it means I won't even get the feeling of satisfaction for extracting justice on this man.

The magician continued on, rambling about something I didn't really care for.

"My brother got into a fight with the archbishop's dog and then something came from the sky and this is the current state. I never, ever intended for this to happen!" He roared, but it wasn't directed toward me.

There was just a single part in that tirade that captured my attention.

"From...the sky?" An interesting claim. Something conveniently fell from the sky and that's supposed to exonerate him from his crimes of destroying the city. Yes...I see and understand now.

I steady myself and put a hand on my head. "I see."

Not from Mikah. Not from George. From somewhere else?

I looked down in thought with my hand covering my face. I could feel George's gaze on me, but I disregarded it for a moment of contemplation.

Vincent? No, he doesn't have enough power. Who else would...who else would fucking do this shit?!

"Yeah, I see now. I got it all figured out now. Basically…"

I threw my whole body into the punch. I crashed my fist into the magician's disgusting face and heard something crack as I slammed him into the ground. Surprise was the only thing I saw before I mounted his fallen body.

"...This wouldn't have happened if you were never here!"

Seeing the reflection of my own angered face in his eyes radiating the feeling that he's been wronged only fueled me more.

I hit him.

"Ah." A splash of blood reaching my right cheek made me come back to my senses. Below me was a ruined face with colors plastered all over it. Blue, purple, red.

I then noticed the heavy breaths I was rapidly taking. I felt blood dripping from my knuckles, prompting me to stare at a person who should've been knocked unconscious from an uncountable number of strikes.

But the eyes were open. The feeling of pain in those eyes was evident, but I don't remember hearing any screaming or yelling.

"Did that make you feel any better?" He mocked me with a sharp laughter carrying across his tone. That laughter fit the profile I was given by Vincent. An insane person indeed.

His intent might've been to spite me, but if I had to be perfectly honest, this beatdown did make me feel better. A stuffy feeling in my chest vanished and the burden on me felt lightened.

When the bastard saw my nod, his pupils shrank into pinpricks. "You're a freak aren't you?" he asked as if he wasn't one himself.

If I kept listening to his nonsense, I'd probably start hitting him again. If I don't control myself, I could very well kill a man today.

That's bad. I need to get myself together and ask him something critical. I yank him by his collar and pull his face closer to mine.

"Tell me why you took control over all the wild animals and set them off in this city."

A voice came out from the destroyed face. "This city is right on top of a Ley Line." He started with something that seemed off topic, but I let him continue. "It was a necessary source of power ready for me to use and abuse for my goal."

George didn't tell me what a Ley Line was. He probably assumed I knew what it was. "I don't care about your method. Just tell me your motivation." I want to know why risking the lives of many people was so worth it to him.

That question made his eyes widen before he began motioning his hands. "I can't kill Laura Stuart with my power. She has too many dogs around her! So, I thought gathering power here and then triggering a war between the Church and Academy City would be a start for giving me a chance to assassinate her." Triggering a war?

Confusion must've been plastered on my face as he elaborated smoothly. "Blowing up a section of Academy City and leaving magical traces would be simple."

I dropped the scum's shirt and let him fall back to the ground. I couldn't trust myself to not spout curses at him the moment I opened my mouth again.

Not only did he take lives in this city and risk many more, but he was going to do the same to where my brother was? Astonishingly enough, I still felt in control of my faculties. I guess beating the shit out of him was good for my mental stability.

"So?" The information he gave me wasn't enough. He told me his plans and why he was doing this. It's just revenge.

But why is he carrying out a ruthless revenge like this?

"'So' what? What else do you want me to say?"

"Why do you want to kill Laura Stuart?" I say a name I don't know with great unfamiliarity. Good thing that George didn't pick up on it as he was distracted by just the name coming from me alone.

"Hehehe… You want to know why I want to kill that evil trash?" He giggled like a loon. The way it was so unhinged made me almost want to back away from him.

He covered his battered face with both of his hands taking shaky breaths. "It's all her fault. My situation, the Church's situation, my brother's situation; it's all her fault! The cause for all the tragedies in the world lies at her feet! That demon in human skin… I'll make sure she dies even if I'm not around to see it.

His left hand shot out towards my chest at surprising speeds. "What?!" I was careless. Too careless.

And now I'm gonna pay for it.

"I will not survive, but you will." Whatever he did paralyzed my body. I felt something rampaging through my nerves, preventing a twitch from even my fingers and toes. I rolled off his body to the side with my eyes wide open.

I fucked up bad. I could've definitely sealed his movements better, but I failed at doing even that.

Slowly, but surely, George rolled to all fours and tried to push himself to a standing position, but at least he was unable to do that. It tells me that he's definitely still feeling the effects of my little temper tantrum.

"You really hit hard…!" If I could, I'd laugh at his situation, but even that feeling from you vanished with the physical change that overcame him.

Darkened markings in the form of spontaneous tattoos began forming and spreading all over his body until almost his entire skin became concealed.

He crawled to me with shaky laughter spilling from his lips. I just stared at him, waiting for either my body to respond again or for him to take some revenge on me.

Wait, what am I waiting for? I need to fight this!

I tried to force my body to move, but nothing was working. I don't even know what he did and how he did it.

He finally reached me.

I wasn't even good enough to stop him. I didn't have enough power to save more people, didn't have enough knowledge to come up with a way to prevent this from happening, and I wasn't quick enough to see the aerial bombardment.

If I just had more...something.

He disregarded my inner struggles and spoke. "The Archbishop. Those random insanity cases. They're linked. The primary target of vengeance hooked by the addicting karma of nurtured ruination. The one who dropped a magical bomb from the sky who injured me and you who injured me. We three are now linked by the twisted karma of pain. Become my cause to uphold the effect of my death lest you degenerate into a monster."

His sudden speech was confusing. I had a bad feeling. All of a sudden I had an epiphany.

I can sense mana, so I should be able to sense the mana inside my body and manipulate it somehow.

Come on and move already, you useless fuck!

Level of 'Mana-sense' has risen by 1.

A skill has been created through an act.

Through sensing the mana within you and attempting to move it, 'Mana Control' has been created.

Finally some good news!

Observe!

A magician who came across a grimoire that warped his mind and warped the body of his brother. Discovered a rotten secret and was hunted down under false pretenses.

A grimoire? The way the man looked at me was extremely unsettling. He was done talking and then he reached a hand toward me again, this time toward my heart.

I recognize that look somewhat. A kind of grim determination that I should've recognized immediately and always. And through understanding that, I came to know that he was casting a spell. "Wait!"

I regained control over my mouth and eyes. My fingers started twitching again.

"Karma begets karma." Blood trailed from the corner of his lips and then from all of his orifices. "I will pass this unto you." I used everything in my body, all the mana that I could possibly control to free myself and stop this madman.

It was too late though. His four limbs couldn't support his weight any longer and he collapsed. At the same time, I felt a pulsing feeling in my heart. It felt like a heart attack. It also felt like the same pulsing feeling I had in my head earlier.

"Whatever happens…" I could only barely comprehend the words of the person next to me. His voice was growing weaker, akin to a dying person. The only thing I could do was hear his final words.

I saw the final bright flame before death in his eyes. He gripped my collar tight and forced his words out as he glared into my very soul. "...You have to end Laura Stuart's life no matter what."

That was it. His grip slackened and his breathing stopped. This kind of phenomenon could only be called death. After everything, his tattoos receded and I was left on the ground.

And as if to mock everything I've done up until now, my body finally started to move again. I still couldn't stand up. I was just staring at a transparent screen in front of me.

Inflicted with Karmic Degradation.

Soul Restoration process has been slowed.

I don't know what's happening anymore. What is going on with me? There's just way too much confusing shit for me to get a handle on and I just want to sleep and run away from it all.

That's right. I don't want to think. Selfishly and cowardly, I want to curl up into a ball and retreat from everything. Returning to the simple life that I always knew is nothing but a pipe dream now. I can just feel it even if I desperately want this to be a one-time thing.

I don't want to see everything, so I want to cover my eyes. The bodies I couldn't save and the sign of a hidden world beneath the things I already know make me feel an irremovable fear I don't think I can ever deal with.

I don't want to hear anything, so I want to cover my ears. If I ignored the words of the magicians and avoided all of this while staying home, I wouldn't have to be inflicted with pain. I hate pain. But others hate pain too.

I don't want to say anything. Offering my help resulted in getting mauled by animals, seeing the loss of lives and homes, and being directly responsible for a corpse beside you. I should've just ran away and ignored it all.

Now, it's too late. I can't run away from things now that I've been inflicted with this status effect.

I finally stand up and look down at a corpse. It's not out of place in the slightest in this ruined area. I can't see the look on my face, but if I know myself well enough, I'm probably just staring blankly at this sight.

Unconsciously, I rub the back of my hand on my cheek. It was where George's blood splashed on me while I was punching him over and over again.

It all just feels incomplete and half assed.

"...I don't pity him." I don't pity him at all, but a person dying right in front of me feels like a failure for some reason. I can feel my soul screaming at me.

I was left with a curse, both figuratively and literally.

"The sky's pretty clear," I say as I look straight up.

I have too many questions, but for now, I just want to rest. I'm so tired. I didn't even have the energy to laugh. "End Laura Stuart's life, huh. Did all of this to start a war so her life had a chance of being lost. I uncovered the reason. Are you satisfied, you bastard?"

Quest Complete.

You have leveled up. You have leveled up.

Silver Dagger stored in inventory.

Level of 'Physical Endurance' has risen by 3.

"Ah, that's right. I forgot about that." Gaining the rewards felt like something to celebrate, but how could I celebrate in this pity party?

I stared down at the body once more, trying to rub the blood off my cheek. At that moment, I made a declaration to myself. "I need something more."

Level of 'Gamer's Soul' has risen by 1.

The Skill, 'Correction,' has been regained.

Soul restoration: 7%.

Flashes of something overtook my vision and foreign emotions flooded my brain. Too many obscure alerts that I don't understand coming all at once. I willed the screens to disappear with a strange sense of vertigo.

I felt something change, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I ignored the disorienting feeling while looking around me for something else to do.

I closed my eyes and took a breath before reopening them. A simple restart is all I needed.

"Now what?" I have no clue what I should put myself into. What I know I should do is to go and rescue more people, but there is an inclination to just morosely stare ahead without doing anything. Having power but not using it for good feels evil, but I just can't sum up the motivation to do anything right now.

But even if I don't feel like it, I have to do it. I must do it. I've never felt more sure of myself than now.

I moved forward to an unknown destination but a hand on my shoulder stopped me in place before I could take another step toward that place.

"Hey." That familiar voice made me turn around. I stared at the name above the head before the face and realized who it was.

"...Vincent." He seemed put off by how I said his name before disregarding my tone. He pointed toward the ground, which my eyes followed.

"Did you kill him?" He asked simply, like murder is normal to him...which it might actually be. I don't know the rules and laws of the magic society and how people deal with killing. It's already too foreign with my worldview to get a handle on.

"Hey, answer the question."

Crap, I'm zoning out again.

"Yeah," I sighed out. "I killed him." I'm willingly taking on the sin of murder acknowledging that the karma of this will bite me in the back one day. In response to that, the middle-aged magician shook his head with a sigh.

"Did you at least get any information before you brutalized him?" He pointedly stared at my bloody knuckles. I raised them to eye level before crossing my arms. My deadened mood did wonders for my blunt delivery.

"Yeah. He tried starting a war with Academy City by gathering power from the Ley Line here." That's basically the gist of it, but apparently that was enough for Vincent to understand. He put hand to his chin in thought before concluding his next course of action.

"I'll need to compile a report for the higher-ups. I'll question you on further specifics later." He really looks like a guy that would pull out a cigarette right about now.

"Let's get out of here already. I have a car ready." I couldn't follow his instructions though. He shot an irritated look at me after I shook my head, so I elaborated for him.

I waved my arm in the direction of further destruction in the city. "There's still a lot of injured people around."

"No good." He instantly rejected my desire. "The JSDF is definitely coming here and there's absolutely no way I'm allowing myself to be caught here. I need to find my partner right now and you need to take that body along with us. It is of utmost importance that you follow my instructions. We can't waste time."

The JSDF? Even then, I felt like refusing him because they aren't here yet. A second wasted is a second longer that the chance of death for injured people rises.

I would've simply ignored him had his tone not been so grim. That and the fact that he's capable of probably neutralizing me. I moodily contemplate with my exhausted mind and decide my next course of action.

"Fine." He was right about one thing. We can't waste time here. "Let's go." I reluctantly oblige him and sling George's body over my shoulder. My increased strength made carrying the weight of a single person quite easy.

He nods and he starts a hasty job with me following behind.

"Heeeeeeeeey! Wait for meeeeeeeeee!" A cheerful, out-of-place voice grabs our attention. It forced the both of us to turn and take in a pale figure with an obnoxious presence.

Mikah, huh. There are very slight tears in his clothes, but other than that, his body is in pristine shape. I felt my jaw loosen as I wondered if he was even injured by the explosion at all.

Vincent took in the sight with practiced ease. "That makes things easier. Let's go."

We passed by damaged buildings to more structurally sound buildings, eventually reaching a pristine road lacking damage like the other ones. Sitting at the front of the road was a car. What was odd was the lack of any other vehicles around it, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Hmph. We fortunately got out without any trouble. Get in the car you two." I listen to the gruff Vincent and watch as Mikah hop into the passenger's seat.

I open the trunk and stuff George's body in it. There was enough space to store it in a seat, but that would mean one of us would be sitting next to a body. Plus, I don't really respect George's corpse enough to allow him the dignity of being placed in a seat.

I opened the backseat door and slid into comfortable leather that allowed me to finally loosen my nerves that were wound too tight.

The relieving exhale I took loosened me up too much. I could just drift away into dreamland right about now. The car's engine thrummed as it took off on the road and I closed my eyes.

It was the perfect mood to complacently sleep, but for a reason I already have an inkling of, I didn't feel a hint of physical exhaustion in me. It was just pure mental exhaustion.

"Yo!" That high-pitched voice made me open my eyes. Of course, it was Mikah who wanted to bother me.

I internally debate the idea of ignoring him or shooting some sharp words at him. I still haven't forgotten that he might've triggered the whole downtown going to shit.

One look at the question marks, however, made me think about putting my foot in my mouth before I actually went through with it.

"What?" I still couldn't keep the sharpness out of my tone though. As if to respond to a person that wasn't being rude, the boy just donned a close-eyed smile.

That made me feel even grumpier.

I reached for my left pocket while mentally accessing my inventory. I felt my hand brush past the pistols I still had. Completely forgot about that. I know what I wanted and I wanted to check it out right now. The hilt of a silver dagger came into my hand and I dragged it out of my deep pocket to take a gander at it.

Ignoring the weird expression that came across the pasty kid's face, I Observed the weapon.

Silver Dagger:

Durability 100/100

A blade in the shape of a medium-length dagger formed out of silver and steel. It possesses an intrinsic advantage against multiple supernatural creatures, such as werewolves and vampires.

Level of 'Observe' has risen by 1.

I gave a slight nod while rubbing my fingers on the flat of the blade, acknowledging the hard evidence that vampires and werewolves exist.

The way I was holding it felt wrong, so I tried correcting my grip until I eventually settled with a comfortable style. Entertaining myself with this weapon felt extremely odd, so I put it away in my pocket to give the illusion I was keeping it in there while actually putting it away in my inventory.

I looked up and saw Mikah still giving a hard stare to me. It was honestly one of the more unnerving things I saw today. Vincent was focusing on the road ahead, but I had a feeling he knew Mikah was making me unsettled just from the quick glances he sent to the rearview mirror.

The fact that he's not at least grabbing this animalistic brat's attention is lowering our bond level a bit.

Just like that, I entered into an arbitrary staring contest.

Speaking of which, did I ever Observe these two magicians? Wait, I'm pretty sure I used it on Vincent, but I don't clearly remember using it on Mikah. Time to fix that.

Laura Stuart's attack dog. Her self-proclaimed protector that's more beast than human and also one of the Saints numbered less than 20 in the world. Likes salty foods.

I wish it would tell me something extra that wasn't their food preference, though the previous information was important.

Theoretically, if I were to go hunt down and kill this Laura, I'd have to go through Mikah somehow. I feel like he'd block all stealth attacks if he's in the area, so going after her would have to be done when I'm either stronger than this guy or when he's not around.

That's also not taking into consideration the fact that there might be more guards around her than just him.

"Hey," he finally spoke up after staring at me for an uncomfortable period of time.

I just slumped back further in my seat. What do I even say to him?

It's a good thing that the conversation between us never took off as the driver finally opened his mouth in this awkward atmosphere. "That's right, I nearly forgot," he spoke up, eyes still locked on the road ahead.

Nice multitasking, buddy.

"You two were at the blast zone for that explosion. Have any idea of the source? Felt it all the way at the hotel."

"No clue!" The German was the first to respond. "I heard something flying in and I barely managed to get out of the way. Targeting me like that is an act of war I can't let go unchallenged."

"They were targeting you?" I blurted out. That doesn't sound right for some reason. If they were just targeting him, then why wait until he was downtown? Not only were his senses blazing from being in a fight, it was getting other innocent people involved for no reason.

I don't think the goal was to target a specific person. There has to be something more to it. Maybe it was the only opportunity he or she had or something?

Through using reasoning to understand a person's motivation, you have increased your INT by 1.

That gives me the feeling of being right. I clenched my fist. Shouldn't I feel more emotional than this? Why am I not as affected as a proper person should be by this tragedy? I'm sure this ability isn't affecting my mind, so this is just all me. Was I always so careless about the affairs of others?

No, I can't spiral like this. Right now, I should waste my time on thinking about the real reason why this attack took place because it certainly wasn't because of a personal vendetta or anything like that.

"Don't joke like that. That explosion was either an accident or there was some other goal behind it." Naturally, I wasn't the only one to realize that. The wellspring of experience and knowledge sitting in the driver's seat definitely had wisdom and intelligence beyond mine.

"Who cares. That air strike nearly hit me dead on while I was already fighting somebody else." Mikah pumped his fists, like he was going back to that battle.

"I see. You then?" Even if he didn't turn to me, I could guess that the person he was directing that to was me. I shrugged my shoulders and told him the truth as there wasn't anything worth hiding.

"I was shooting those animals and running through alleyways when my memory temporarily failed me. I came to; a bunch of broken concrete and other shit on me and pulled myself out of it." I winced halfway through my explanation.

One of us seems to have pieced something together though. Could Mikah enlighten us about something?

"Ah. Give me back my guns." No he couldn't. He focused on something that wasn't important in the slightest and violated safety violations by leaning out of his seat without a belt properly fastened around him.

I sighed and pulled the guns from my pocket.

"Sure." I didn't feel any regret giving them back. Those vampiric guns were dangerous to my overall well-being.

This 'Saint' then looked down the eye of a barrel of one of them and gave an appreciative whistle. "Did you fire these over twenty times or something? I knew you had it in you! You probably didn't even need these."

"Are you kidding me?" I stoically glared at him. "You should've told me they were sapping away at my life with every shot I took."

That statement surprised Vincent as he briefly turned around at me with slight surprise in his eyes before remembering that he was driving a vehicle. "So, you used them? Well, you should recover from your exhausted spirit from a couple days of rest."

"What are you talking about? He's fine right now. He's similar to me: a person with a large lifeforce that shouldn't be bothered by this kind of stuff."

Was that what Mikah was referring to earlier when he said we were pretty similar?

"Even if that's the case," Vincent gave off a powerful sigh that carried weariness in it. "Those weapons are tailored specifically for you. If anyone else uses them too much, it'll start chafing away at their very lifespan."

"Wow, it would've been nice to know about that earlier." I didn't keep that complaint in my head, though I wasn't as annoyed as a normal person should've been. I rested my arm near the window and propped my cheek against my hand.

With a roll of my eyes, I summed up my current mood. "Whatever. It was handy, so thanks."

"See, he doesn't mind! That means it's A-okay!" Both Vincent and I sighed in unison with me closing my eyes and shutting myself from the noise.

I opened my status out of curiosity to see what my current condition was.

Name: Genji Soma

Title: Ex-Delinquent

Level: 7 (Next Level 460/1700 EXP)

HP: 170/170

MP: 110/110

STR: 30

VIT: 17

DEX: 17

INT: 11

WIS: 12

LCK: 2

Points: 10

Money: 8000 Yen

Condition: Karmic Degradation

My current condition…

Looking at that status effect burns. A spell cast at the cost of a person's life would possibly be something extremely vile. I need to check it out right now.

Karmic Degradation: A condition linked to the idea of Karma. Fulfill the Karma to release yourself from the condition. All Stats +50% when fulfilling Karma. The longer Karma goes unresolved, the more your body and mind degrades.

I don't know what to say about this. I was right that George left me with an abominable curse as he died, but this seems far more vicious than I initially thought. Degrading body and mind? How exactly does this process happen?

No, more than that, what Karma am I fulfilling?

"Wait," I speak aloud to myself in a low whisper. One of the magicians probably heard me, but that's a nonissue.

George told me to kill Laura Stuart. I had a strange, foreign thought of actually killing her that spontaneously birthed itself in my head.

I placed a hand on my temple and felt a true urge to yell and shout out all the building stress and frustration. This is...a messed up situation.

Son of a bitch.

I have to kill Laura Stuart to survive.

Quest Alert.

End of Karma.

Kill Laura Stuart. Time Limit: Until your body and mind gives out from the Karma.

Reward: 500,000 EXP. Title. Karma Resolved.

Penalty: Your dream will not come true in this lifetime.

And there's the quest.

"Oh man." I cover my face with both of my hands. There was no way I could show Mikah and Vincent the look on my face right now. A crazy quest like this has been thrusted at me. I can't refuse it.

Man. I don't know why, but when I saw the penalty, my resolve hardened into something that could force me to willingly kill a person.

"You okay?" Strangely enough, it was the boy of questionable sanity who tried to check my own mental stability. One of my hands fell and I used it to wave off his concern.

"This day has been a shit show is all." That didn't convince him in the slightest as the color of his green eyes turned dull. Leaving me no choice but to elaborate, I put on a grin and went all out on this harmless fib.

"I just realized why life is worth living." I received a snort from Vincent, but that was all. The conversation stopped and the low humming of the car's engine and the breath of the air conditioner was all that made up the atmosphere in the vehicle.

I closed my eyes and invested all ten of my stat points into my highest stat so far. I feel I'm gonna need a lot of it in the coming days. I'll need some more mental strength as well considering how lackluster that quality of mine is.

The car stopped and I then opened my eyes. I wish I was groggy as that would imply that I got any sleep. All that happened was my breathing slowing down and my mind drifting off without fully drifting into sleep.

How much time had passed? I don't know and I can't muster up the energy to care.

It felt like I was pretty close to doing so, but I was missing something that would let me sleep annoyingly enough. A voice destroyed that possibility for the short term.

"Alright, let's move out. Get Nelson out of the trunk and follow me closely to avoid any bothersome interactions."

Vincent directed his eyes at me when there's someone much stronger than the both of us. I did sling him on my shoulder before without complaining, but that's still a little weird.

Picking up the body from the trunk while not seeing anyone around us, I questioned Vincent. "What now?" He stared at me with Mikah tapping his feet and playing with his hands in the background.

"I'll set up a mobile clearing field. It'll be disrupted if you stray from me or bump into anyone, so stay close." He stopped his sentence at the moment of Mikah reaching the peak of his instability.

God, why can't there be just an instruction manual to the world of magic and stuff? I'm a fish out of water with all this terminology bombarding me.

"Alright, can we go now?" The impatient whitehead was bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to get this show on the road. The scruffy blond nodded.

"Let's go," he said with solemnity.

After that, the view of people walking in the distance vanished with a shimmer.

Vincent took point with me immediately behind and Mikah casually bringing up the rear, resting the back of his neck on his hands. I glanced back toward him out of sheer nervousness only to see a smile verging on the side of off-putting. He probably thought it was reassuring.

It wasn't reassuring in the slightest.

The three of us continued onward in silence for a bit with only me feeling discontent. I nearly bumped into Vincent's back when he stopped suddenly in front of a door. He clumsily reached deep in his pockets for a card, which he showed to the room scanner.

"Go in." I had the urge to question the idea of someone just randomly seeing a door open but nobody standing in front of it, but then I felt the grasp of common sense once more.

Vincent wouldn't let that happen. He seems pretty experienced.

The older man let out a sigh the instant we all strolled into the room. He closed the door and loosened his tie before donning a sleazy grin.

"Man, what a shitshow today has been, eh? You can toss George's body on the sofa. I need to do a scan on it." It's only now that I feel the weight of a corpse.

I've really just been lugging around a dead body disrespectfully. It's okay though. My mind has just about stabilized from today's pressure, so I should mentally be in the clear. Gently placing the body down to not damage it, I dropped into the free seat that wasn't taken up by the whole body.

It's time to indulge in this sudden indolence.

I'm completely pooped. It'd be wise to call my mom or dad and let them know I'm fine or even go back home, but screw that.

I just need sleep. I closed my eyes and then my breathing began to naturally slow.

"He clocked out in a room full of strangers?" Vincent apathetically queried. He glanced over at Mikah standing by the wall before letting out a cough, alerting him to attention. "Mikah, tell me the circumstances as to why you couldn't capture George immediately."

"Eh? He could be faking his sleep. Sure you want me to go on about this case?"

"Doesn't matter anymore. He's already involved enough, so even if he's eavesdropping, it won't make a difference."

Mikah's eyes shone as he returned a thumbs up to the blond. "Alright, you got it. In a shellnut, I hunted him down instantly, but I got intercepted by his brother. I barely kept myself in check before I started bringing down buildings, but it's hard to hold back against a creature like that. After the prey got away, the air strike hit and the scent of war hit next. It was pretty addicting and I got kinda distracted chasing after my current enemy who escaped me. Everything from there should be obvious, right?"

The sound of flesh hitting flesh resounded through the room. It was an echoing slap of a facepalm and conveyed the depths of sheer exasperation Vincent was feeling at the moment.

"So,'' he began and continued, "you didn't actually manage to secure anything?"

At this, Mikah whipped out a fleshy object merged with silverine metals and filled the room with a rotting smell. Vincent covered his nose while wafting the stench away from him.

"Put that back!"

"Yessir!"

"I'm going to assume that was the hand of George's brother." Mikah nodded. "Good. So it was more than a semi-failure, but not quite a success. I think the church will accept this result. Now I just need to extract knowledge from the corpse, so let me prepare."

Dragging a chair to the sofa, Vincent slowly sat on it, his stiff back beginning to protest at the motion. He only winced slightly before leaning over the body.

"Oh right," he said, recalling something important. He turned to Mikah who was suspiciously bringing the warped hand to his mouth. "If you eat that, I'm putting all the blame on you."

"Ah," he froze. "Fine...stiff ass." He muttered something that was missed by Vincent and then he put the material back in his clothes.

The room then became deathly quiet. Vincent didn't set up any ritualistic items around him, nor did he internally chant something to keep his mind prepared. He merely closed his eyes before breathing in an uneven pattern of exhales and inhales.

The meaning of exhaling first then inhaling second to start the rhythm was important for using his eyes to extract the necessary information still coded within the brain.

Science would equate this phenomenon to something akin to psychometry, a form of ESP that would be common in Academy City and nowhere else. What Vincent is doing is reading the remnants of information trapped in the body after the soul has left with the majority of information through magical means instead of scientific.

The main reason Necessarius deems him useful isn't his sheer expertise in magic and potential for powerful destruction like a younger, redheaded compatriot of his. His primary speciality is his information gathering abilities. And what raised those abilities to new heights was the eyes he accidentally gained, which allowed him to perceive a different world of data that he had to learn how to read.

The drawback was that the procedure took quite a bit of time to be performed successfully, and if interrupted in the middle of the process, there would be a nasty backlash to Vincent while permanently risking data loss in both the magician and the body.

This is why he's always accompanied by a strong fighter, albeit having a Saint helping him out is rare. With this though, things should go perfectly fine.

Which is why he wasn't bothered when there was the sound of a door knocking. He didn't say anything and just let Mikah deal with that.

"Alright," he breathed out. His eyes were fully prepared, so he guided his vision throughout his body all the way to the tips of his index and ring finger. He crossed them over the middle finger and slowly rested them on George's head.

And then he opened his eyes and saw sounds ready to be translated into perceptible words. It was time for him to get to work. A grin slowly split his face as he got a chance to indulge in his specialty.

At the same time, Mikah was struggling to deal with a staff member at the door due to a claim of their door malfunctioning. The reason behind this claim?

A person saw the door randomly open and close on its own. The young Saint cursed Vincent's negligence while he externally showed a beatific smile.

He had to quickly open and shut the door with him outside just so the man couldn't see what his partner was doing to a body on the sofa. The suspicions wouldn't have been worth it, so here he is trying to assuage a person's concern.

...Talking to people isn't his speciality. He wishes he could just knock him out and dump him somewhere, but that would only bring more noise.

Eh, who cares.

Mikah quickly gut punched him to sleep and picked him up by the scruff of his collar, looking for a public restroom to dump him in. It's not like he's going to stay here for long.

Well, he's still going to stay a little longer than he thought. There's something he needs to ask Soma. A small chat with him should reveal something he's been confused about for a while. If he doesn't get an answer he likes, he'll shoot him. If he does get an answer he likes, he'll shoot him. In other words, he's itching for a fight as the hunt he was promised was interrupted.

Oh, and he should tell the Laura and other blonde about his trip once he gets back!